Students in ES 8800/5618 traveled to the Valley and Ridge Province of the Appalachian Basin for four days over Fall Break (Oct 14-17). The group examined classic problems in Earth Sciences at each outcrop, including sea-level change at Rocky Gap, VA; calcite and aragonite seas at Arc Hollow, WV; land plant colonization at North Fork Mtn, WV; and anoxia and ironstones at Blue Grass, WV. Camping was at Stony Fork in VA and Seneca Shadows in WV, capped by a hike up to the vertical beds of Tuscarora Sandstone that make up Seneca Rocks. It was four seasons in one day kind of weather – upper 80s late on Friday and then next thing we knew it was hat and gloves weather with wind chills in the 30s by Sunday morning!
Left to Right: Photo 1: Oolitic ironstones of early Silurian age in the Rose Hill Formation at Blue Grass, West Virginia.
Photo 2: Student (Lucas Carter) next to vertical beds of Tuscarora Sandstone of early Silurian age at Seneca Rocks, West Virginia.
Photo 3: Group Photo